Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Implicit Association Tests

See No Bias (washingtonpost.com): “Overall, according to the researchers, large majorities showed biases for Christians over Jews, the rich over the poor, and men’s careers over women’s careers. The results contrasted sharply with what most people said about themselves — that they had no biases.”

For some reason, the Washington Post neglected to include a link to these online tests. You can take some of the Implicit Association Tests by going here.

I had already heard of these tests and had taken a few of them before reading this article in the Post. I’m happy to report that, according to the tests, I don’t have any particular bias against Jewish people or in favor of Christians. Neither do I have a bias with respect to women and science careers. Disturbingly enough, I also have no particular bias against Bush and the Republicans. Heh, heh….well…I’m going to interpret that to mean that I don’t have an unfair bias against Bush!

I didn’t take the light vs dark skin test because I fully expect that I would have some bias against dark-skinned people. I say this because I am light-skinned and I grew up surrounded only by other light-skinned people. I have no doubt that my early experiences have affected my preference. In general, a person naturally prefers what they’re most familiar with. It’s sort of surprising, though, that dark-skinned people often also have a favorable bias towards light skins. I’m supposing that it has a lot to do with what people see in the media. Although things are changing, there’s still a preponderance of white faces on television and movies and in magazines.

Interestingly (and surprisingly!), the test shows that I have “a moderate automatic preference for gay people relative to straight people.” Hmm… Since I’m straight, maybe it’s related to my deeply felt belief that gay people are unfairly discriminated against in this country. That’s on my mind fairly often lately–as anyone who is a regular reader knows–so I suppose that could explain it.

Whatever. These tests are thought-provoking. Check ‘em out.